I am honestly not into repetitive puzzle game, and The Witness looks just like that, at first. The game starts out slow, presenting a segment of the world I am in where board-like puzzles are everywhere and solving them is absolutely crucial to advance. I wasn’t thrilled when my first impression was that it’s going to be like solving these puzzles in a beautiful park for the entire game.
However, things start to impress me once I get to explore how vast, how mysterious, and how eye-poppingly beautiful the whole island is. There are moments I even think to myself, after seeing all kinds of beautifully created locations that I know a lot of love has been put into, that even just “sightseeing” around the entire island alone is already worth the money.
Once I get intrigued by the beauty of the island, the puzzles become the reward of what I get to see and explore further. The story also unfolds slowly. The best part is: I have now come to love these board puzzles, for its ever-evolving nature throughout the game, and its cleverness put into them.
This is not a game to binge, to play it all in one sitting. It’s a game to take it slow. Play it now and then. Solve some puzzles, walk around, enjoy Einstein’s quotes dubbed by an electrifying voice, and then put the game down for a while. Do that for a few days, and I can guarantee that you will walk away with something you love about this game.